Big Girl Blue

Thursday, September 01, 2011

It is day twenty-four of my 30 Days of Photos challenge (feel free to join me at any time). Do your best to try not to notice that I am taking a while to do this.

Today it became official, we will be participating in curbside organic gardening. Here is the little curbside composter they dropped off:

Ain't he cute. I shall call him Fred. Along with this lovely green container on wheels came a beige kitchen counter compost collector and brown bags for collection organic waste. And of course, directions so we don't piss off the curbside collector.

Tuesday, May 03, 2011

Today's photo is of the school next door to where my husband works. They have been renovating the old structure and adding on to the back. When the tornadoes went through the states last week we had wind warnings up here as an effect. This poor little building looks like it went through a war with all the shredded plastic.

Saturday, April 16, 2011

I tweet a lot. One of the things I like about twitter is it makes me feel less alone. In the sense that other people, especially women, feel things the way I do or are living through similar situations. I also like the instant access to support if I need it; something that is not always available in the real world because of other people's schedules.

Could I live without it? Sure, but luckily I have the choice not to. I'd rather see the positive aspects that twitter brings into my life than focus on the negative ones that other people want to focus on. I find it interesting that those that complain about Twitter use Twitter to do the complaining.

I am not a hoarder. But I do recognize that I have hoarding tendencies. Maybe we all do to some extent.

I can't remember the title of the book I read; about ten years ago, and it really has been a savior but after reading it I got in the habit of going through certain areas of my house a couple times a year and getting rid of things I haven't used in the last six to eight months. It is really a hard thing to do because: a/ I probably paid money for it and b/ I always have that "what if I need it in the future" question in my head. Then I won't have one and will have to spend money to get another one or do with out when I had already had one. While these things still go through my mind I also ask the question, "Can someone else make better use of it?" And that question helps me give things away. Not everything obviously, some things I have emotional attachments to that I have no desire of breaking while others are less painful. I still feel pretty cluttered at times even though I know that overall we live a less cluttered life than we did about fifteen years ago. It took a few years but Jeff eventually followed suit.

Which brings me to today's mini-project. Cleaning out my desk drawer. I haven't cleaned out the drawer in a while and I noticed it has been increasingly hard to close this past week. There are basics I always use like pens, post-its, scissors. And there is the stapler, playing cards, more pens, my Wacom drawing pad and a few mice, the computer kind. There's packing tape for BIW prizes once a month, an adapter for some computer but am pretty sure it is not my current one. There are a few candles, sage, a large empty Ziploc bag, recipe cards, and a bag of blue marbles. And a few other things I'll show you in a minute.

Should I get rid of some of this stuff? Maybe one or two times but for the most part I'm just going to spend a few minutes organizing the small space and maybe moving a few things to another space. I'm not in the getting rid of frame of mind today although a few things will find their way into the trash -- pens that don't write.

Here are a few things I thought were interesting:

My hoard of post-it notes and stickies which I use often but seldom share. One of my favorite things to get in my stocking at Christmas is Post-it notes. If there are no post-it or "stickies" I'm very sad. Which is kind of sad.

I bought this little goddess online. I like the shape and feel of it but still haven't decided what to do with it. I still like it so it will go in another drawer.

And the best find? A "Anti-Depressant Kit" I was given some time ago and had forgotten about. It made me smile as I read the note: "For those times when you need a 'pick me up', just open this anti-depressant kit and you're sure to feel better soon. It contains: An eraser, so you can make all your problems disappear. A penny, so you can never say 'I'm broke!' A marble, in case someone says, 'You've lost your marbles!' A rubber band, so you can stretch yourself beyond limits. A string, to tie things together when everything falls apart. A hug and a kiss, to remind you that someone somewhere cares about you!"

What truly amazes me is that there was chocolate in my desk and I didn't eat it. Have a lovely Saturday!

Thursday, April 14, 2011

For some reason when I was at the hardware store last week looking for new clippers I decided I wanted to grow some plants from seeds. I did this when we first moved in to our house with little success (but what did survive I still have in the garden, surprisingly). I didn't want to go crazy so I picked up a 72 peat pod kit which has twelve short rows of six.

I planted one row of pumpkin seeds, two rows of pink fluffy grass, two row's of Jeff's dad's poppies, one row of ground cherries, three rows of blazing star (got the seeds from a lady who wrote an article for Oh Canada magazine), one row of heliotrope, one row of white clematis (from another lady I met online), and one row of blue fescue.

Today when I checked in on them I found the pumpkin seeds already sprouting. It hasn't even been a week! There also looks like a spring of grass. It is looking pretty promising so far if I do say so myself. Hopefully, I didn't just jinx it.

Tuesday, April 05, 2011

You know it's spring when I start filling up the blog with plant and gardening pictures. I wanted to get an early start on cleaning the flower beds because I have a lot to get done before the excruciating hot weather and humidity start and I become a hermit (yes, more so than now).

So far I have cleaned the biggest garden and the left side garden. I made the mistake of cleaning the big garden all in one day. After six months of no yard work, I was sore for three days afterward. At least I'm broken-in now (although I was feeling pretty broken).

Here a shot of the back garden all cleaned up. The shot is taken on an angle to include the back corner garden which is still not awake (if you click on it you'll get a bigger view):

There are some tulips coming up in the center and the hostas which I've been growing for over five years are breaking ground already.

Here is the side garden. The black eyed susans and purple coneflowers have started. And of course there are tulip tips coming up here and there.

This is wear most of the work will come in after I've cleaned all the other flower beds (another side, back corner, back stairs, by small shed, and front yard). I'll be adding a yard of soil along the back to bring the ground back up to the neighbors and then I'll put back the flagstone path I removed last year. I'll extend the garden forward a bit to give the hen & chick border some room. To the left out of shot are some cedars whose roots are showing so I want to cover them with another yard as well as the trees on the other side of the yard. If there is soil left over I'll top off some of the other gardens. Then I want to lay down new mulch as it's been a few years. Finally, I want to re-edge all the gardens. I'm hoping to have this all done by the end of June. The sooner the better because it will already be stinking hot by then.

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

This weekend we participated in Maple Fest which involved driving 20 or so minutes to a family farm that has been producing maple for a few generations and having fresh pancakes with their maple syrup and a side of maple infused sausage. It cost $8 and was totally worth it. The picture looks cramped because I was cramped. It was a full house with people lining up outside. I'm so glad we got up early. Ok, I got up early, Jeff was already up.

The pancakes were awesome fluffy. FLUUUFFY! Neither of us were able to finish the second pancake. We did this last year and toured a bunch of other farms on the tour to taste wines, cheese etc but this year we just took in the drive and the breakfast. I think will probably become a yearly event.

Friday, March 18, 2011

One of the local stores brought in some baby chicks to entertain the kids while their parents shop. It worked. It entertained the adults too. Like me. The iPod Touch was out in seconds; I actually remembered to bring it with me. Unfortunately, the heating lamp popped on as I was taking pics (I color corrected and everything so you can imagine how much redder they were). This picture truly doesn't do their cuteness justice.

I posted a review at PlusShe.com for hair tinsel. One of the pictures I took was with a camera app (Camera Bag) on my iPod Touch which gives the effect of having a bunch of different cameras. This photo in particular was with the Lola effect (there's like ten others with just this one app). It's one of my favorite effects.

Thursday, March 03, 2011

A few weeks ago I mentioned we got a new toaster oven (Oster Digital Toaster Oven with Convection). It's much bigger than our old toaster and having both of them on the spare counter completely took up all the extra space we had put the counter in for.

Much to my chagrin Jeff decided he wanted to put up a shelf. I talked him into cupboards and we went cupboard shopping. It was a learning experience that made me decide $600 was too much money and I allowed him to revisit the shelf idea again. After some discussion we decided on using the board I had in my office that I used for sorting papers, it has been standing in the corner for the last six months unused so I offered it up.

All he had to buy were brackets. I asked him to decorate the edge (there's a guy term for it but it escapes me) to match the plant shelf above the sink and he did.

I think the shelf has been up for about two weeks. I love it. As you can see we put both the microwave and the toaster oven on it. Jeff even put a light under the shelf so it wouldn't be too dark. I haven't used it yet but it's a nice feature to have. I wish we had done it sooner!

In the summer he will take it down and spray paint it white along with the kitchen doors.

Now for Oster's Digital Toaster Oven with Convection. It makes toast, it bakes, it fan bakes, it dehydrates. The only problem? The frigging manual sucks! Seriously. The only directions are how to set the clock and turn on each feature. There is no information on what to use the convection for i.e. bake chicken, not bake chicken, bake cake, not bake cake. Or if you are going to bake a cake or bake a chicken what kind of time variance from your regular oven I should use. No suggestions what-so-ever on how to use the bloody thing! I even went to their website, nothing. So basically everything is an experiment. Oster has some work to do in helping me to enjoy their product.

In our neighborhood it is not uncommon to sit down to dinner then have someone knock at the door. Knocking or, heaven forbid, ringing the doorbell sends the dog into a barking tizzy. A tizzy I tell you! In an effort to avoid the literal headache, Jehovah witness, people who want us to change company or buy security alarms or have our driveway paved or whatever; we put up a no soliciting sign. You can't see the fine print but basically it says we welcome girl guides, they at least bring cookies with them.

I came home from shopping yesterday and was unloading the vehicle and had to snap this shot of Shelby patiently waiting for me while surveying the street.

You'd be amazed how many people still knock. Then comment on the sign as if it wasn't meant for them. So annoying.

Monday, February 28, 2011

I while back I mentioned that I have very few pictures of myself as a child. I have the scary school pics that we were all all tortured through in grade school and high school but no baby pictures. Here is the youngest photo I have of myself -- I'm so damn cute (even if I do say so myself).

Friday, February 25, 2011

One of the things I've been crazy addicted to lately is doodling. I used to doodle a lot when I was a young adult but I eventually left it behind. But now I crave it it daily (I did two today).

It all started a few weeks ago when I created a Squidoo lens called Zendala Challenge. From there it has led me to furthering doodling, buying books to doodling in (my currently goal is to fill a 110 page sketch book with doodle creations) and collecting doodling books. I now have a collapsible folder of doodling tools, cut up paper, notepad, ink pens, and the doodles I've been collecting.

Jeff celebrated a birthday recently and I couldn't help decorating the plain envelope with a few doodles in his honor: